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Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Ideamen - Schemata

A little history for you waveriders.I grew up under the kind tutelage of classic
rock and oldies thanks to my parents musical preferences.Similar to many others I began to push
against those constraints during my teenage years.That said, it was not until I was attending
college that I was drawn to a new school of music which has guided me to this
day.Yes my friends, I initially dabbled
and then enrolled full time in the School
Of Patton.

Perhaps I'm mistaken but I have a sneaking suspicion that a
few of you reading this right now might share my passion for Mike Patton's
varied musical projects.Hearing the
man's multi-faceted performances complimenting incredibly diverse tunes was
truly eye-opening.My personal favorite album
Patton sings on, and the one which I identify with the most musically, is Mr.
Bungle's California.Therefore whenever I come across a band or
artist who was clearly influenced by Mike Patton/Mr. Bungle my interest is
piqued immediately.Enter Ideamen and their latest release Schemata.

Now before we go any further I know what you're going to
say."For crying out loud Penfold,
that album came out in 2014!"That
is true."If you didn't tell us
about this album until 2017 then you must not like it!"That is not true.To be completely honest I failed to write a
review because I wanted to come up with a highly entertaining story idea to
complement the manner in which I would be lauding this album, and well...that
never happened.My apologies.Back to the business at hand!

Ideamen put their
own spin on the sound I associate with Mr. Bungle.For starters there are two lead
vocalists.One is directly comparable to
Mike Patton while the other sounds similar to Daron Malakian of System Of A
Down fame.The combination works
fantastically well!Outside of the
vocalists the music Ideamen make is
more focused than the outright zaniness of Mr. Bungle.While a wide variety of genres shape the
bands compositions, everything reliably fits into a solid metal frame that will
inevitably get your head banging.

Whenever I listen to this album it strikes me that every
element fits together seamlessly.The
instrumentation complements the vocals perfectly.The vocals reinforce and draw attention to
the instrumental melodies that arrest the listener's attention.While the keyboard/synthesizer reliably
drives those melodies the guitar work adds the necessary muscle, crunch, and
flair.Also, and I struggle to explain
this, the songs of Schemata simply
scream 'sci-fi' to my ears.It just so
happens that I'm a fan of 'sci-fi' entertainment so that adds another level to
my enjoyment.

Look waveriders.I
admit that I should have told you about this album a long time ago.My failure is borderline unforgivable.All I can do is try to make up for lost time
and vigorously recommend you check out Ideamen
and their marvelous album Schemata.The silver lining here is that once you
become a fan like me, you won't have to wait long for new material.Updates on their facebook page indicate a new
album will hopefully see the light of day soon.That's stupendous news!Now get
to listening!

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